Spiced Winter Meatballs with Seaweed Tagliatelle

While browsing through my local wholefoods shop yesterday I noticed, packaged in a handy grinder, a Seaweed Sprinkle, sustainably produced from local seaweed by Böd Ayre Seaweed Products. Their leaflet says that since edible seaweed contains 10 times more calcium than a glass of milk, more vitamins and minerals than any land produced vegetable that it is truly a super food. Scientific support for the health benefits of seaweed can be found here, where it states that a component of seaweed has immunomodulatory, antitumor, antithrombotic, anticoagulant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antiviral activities. I’m always looking for ways to increase the nutrient content of our diets without having to buy tablets or supplements and since the price was well within my budget I just had to buy it and experiment. I came up with this dish inspired by Jamie Oliver’s meatball recipe but made from store cupboard ingredients. It’s winter right now and I can’t, for the life of me, keep fresh herbs alive on my freezing cold window sill up here at 60 degrees North. (Please note, this is not a sponsored post.)

Seaweed pasta:

400 g ’00’ pasta flour

4 large eggs

2 tsp Böd Ayre Seaweed Sprinkle
extra virgin olive oil, to drizzle

Place flour, eggs and seaweed in a food processor and blitz for about 30 seconds, until clumps of dough start to form. Transfer to the counter top and knead for 3 minutes, until smooth and silky. Wrap in cling film and leave in the refrigerator for an hour. When the dough is ready roll out as thin as you possibly can and cut into strips about 5 mm wide, or use a pasta machine. Hang until needed. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add pasta and cook for 3 minutes. Drizzle with olive oil before serving.

Tomato Sauce:
2 cloves Orkney smoked garlic
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small red chilli
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp Böd Ayre Seaweed Sprinkle
3 x 400g tins plum tomatoes
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Saute the garlic, red chilli, oregano and basil together for a minute, without colouring the garlic. Add the tomatoes and seaweed with the lid half off the pan for at least a half an hour. The sauce tastes best if simmered for an hour or so, if you have the time. Remove from heat and add the remaining oil and vinegar. Use a potato masher to break up the tomatoes if you prefer a smoother sauce. Personally I prefer to leave the tomatoes whole. Set aside.

Spiced Winter Meatballs (makes approximately 40):

600g lean beef mince
50g fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 small dried red chilli (or more, to taste)
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp Böd Ayre Seaweed Sprinkle
2 cloves Orkney smoked garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
125g mozzarella ball, torn
50g Grana padano cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Mix together mince, breadcrumbs, rosemary, seaweed, garlic, mustard and red onion in a large bowl.

Heat the cumin seeds in a dry pan until they start to toast (they’ll start jumping on the pan). Grind in a mortar and pestle along with the chilli.

Stir the spices into the beef mixture and add the beaten egg. Using your hands (wearing latex gloves, if, like me, you’ve experienced an unfortunate nail-biting incident after handling raw meat! Note – I no longer bite my nails!) thoroughly combine all the ingredients, adding a good grind of sea salt and black pepper. Form into meatballs about 1 inch in diameter.

Heat a large frying pan and brown the meatballs evenly on all sides, without breaking them up. Transfer to an ovenproof casserole dish.

Add the tomato sauce to the frying pan and scrape up any bits which have stuck to the bottom. Pour the sauce over the top of the meatballs. Stir gently to combine. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes with the lid off.

 

Increase heat to 200 C. Arrange torn mozzarella and sprinkle the grated Grana padano cheese over the top of the meatballs and sauce. Bake for a further 15-20 minutes until the cheese is golden and bubbly.

Serve over the seaweed pasta with a further sprinkling of seaweed on top.